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Marty Haulena positions himself atop a federal fisheries patrol boat, his CO2-powered dart rifle aimed at a rocky haulout of about 200 Steller sea lions off Long Beach on Vancouver Island. His target is an adult female with a plastic packing band cutting through the skin and deep into the blubber around its neck.

Every year, thousands of people abandon all good sense to immerse themselves in the chilly waters of the Pacific Ocean. And, since its inception in 1920 when 10 people went for a dip, more and more swimmers have been finding the gumption to take part in the event, which now regularly boasts over 2000 official entries (there were 2,550 in 2014) and draws over 10,000 to the West End. We talked to Sean Healy, Supervisor of Aquatic Services with the Vancouver park board and the City of Vancouver (and 20-plus-year Polar Bear swimmer), about the event.

The global ocean provides continuous protection on the planet from the worst impacts of climate change. These vast waters do this by capturing 90 per cent of the excess heat generated from man-made greenhouse gas warming and over 30 per cent of the carbon dioxide released from our burning of fossil fuels. This protection doesn’t come without costs. The added heat causes ocean water to expand exacerbating sea level rise. And carbon dioxide dissolved in seawater makes the ocean more acidic, detrimentally impacting the health of the ocean and the life. This ocean life is central to the livelihood of millions of people where 20 per cent of Earth’s population consumes fish as their primary source of protein.

British Columbia will be getting a small fraction of the thousands of Syrian refugees headed to Canada in the next month, figures obtained by The Vancouver Sun reveal. The vast majority of the first 10,000 Syrian refugees headed to Canada by Dec. 31 are destined for the Montreal and Toronto areas, according to figures from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada that show the number of applications in progress on Nov. 19, by city of destination.

Simon Winchester is a journalist, broadcaster and the author of bestselling non-fiction and young adult books, including The Professor and the Madman. His recent titles include Atlantic, The Men Who United the States and Pacific. Winchester lives in Massachusetts and New York City.

Rodger Hunter leans on the rail of Greenslade Trestle and points to the glossy green river spilling across a broad outflow from Cowichan Lake before funnelling into narrows just upstream from the old railway crossing repurposed as a pedestrian bridge.

Rivers have a natural flow. They typically start small in mountain headwaters, then grow in size and speed as they welcome new tributaries on their inevitable journey to an even larger river or a fluid peace in the Pacific Ocean.

Although meteorologists are predicting another relatively warm and dry winter for the Lower Mainland, the people who run the region's ski resorts are optimistic that the coming season will be a better than last year.

Four more women are stepping forward to argue their children are legal heirs to a murdered West Vancouver man’s $50-million estate, but they say they fear for their families’ safety if their identities are revealed. The new claims bring the total to five mothers claiming a piece of Gang Yuan’s fortune following his murder and dismemberment in early May.

The goal of our expedition is to understand more about marine life, but we are also learning that the path to conservation is marred with some unintended victims. That would be the ocean sunfish, or Mola mola, a bizarre-looking creature that is often seen floating like a giant pancake on the waters far off Canada’s West Coast.

ABOARD THE CCGS JOHN P. TULLY — We are sailing in the whalers’ wake. In the 1800s through the 1960s, Canada’s West Coast flowed red with blood from the whaling industry. And while the commercial killing has stopped, the legacy of that era lives on in endangered species such as the blue, sei and North Pacific right whale.

Record low river levels and warm water temperatures could have a devastating effect on millions of sockeye salmon headed for the Fraser River to spawn, according to a UBC biologist. If this summer’s unusual weather conditions continue, few salmon will brave the stifling temperatures of the river, and many of those that do will die trying, Tony Farrell said.

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